I'd paint the front bumper in place. The grill chrome should come off much easier with the aid of a heat gun. And, I'll throw in another recommendation for plasti-dip for the fender extensions. If you don't like it you can just peel it off and paint the normal way.

In a perfect world a heat gun would speed up the process but that stuff does not want to come off. I think it is heat resistant. I wish you could just spray the bumpers in place but most choose to remove the end caps all together prior to painting which made a huge improvement to the end product. It is a good idea to remove the flares because you may have some rust spots developing where the brackets mount to the body. I am all for cutting corners but I think this is one job worth spending the extra money and time to do it right the first time.

4D55 Performance wrote:In a perfect world a heat gun would speed up the process but that stuff does not want to come off. I think it is heat resistant. I wish you could just spray the bumpers in place but most choose to remove the end caps all together prior to painting which made a huge improvement to the end product. It is a good idea to remove the flares because you may have some rust spots developing where the brackets mount to the body. I am all for cutting corners but I think this is one job worth spending the extra money and time to do it right the first time.

Otiswesty wrote:Why don't you guys paint the entire grille? It looks good, but seems like it should be black all the way down that part to the bumper level. Less noticeable with a winch on front, but seems a little odd. The chrome strips come off easily with a blow dryer or a heat gun, they just peel off, then some goo gone to get the rest of the adhesive off. The running boards are in a tight spot, but using a ratcheting box wrench makes it pretty easy and saves alot of time.

Looking good Spence. The large roof tent must be great for accomodating all those kids, put up a pic with the trailer once that is all sorted.

Cheers,

Eric

Thanks for your kind words Eric.

Not painting the grille was a stylistic choice on my part. I have seen it done both ways and I liked the way it looks when the bottom 1/3 is not painted. I was just trying to do a modern take on a classic which is what the original poster is trying to accomplish. The only other changes I plan to make are orange turn signals and maybe painting the mirrors black.

You're right about the sliders, having the right tool makes all the difference. I used a torch to break them loose and gear wrenches made the process go much quicker.